Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-04-23
A MARRIAGE MANIA.
Actress with a Quartette of Hus.
bands-Number 0ne was a
Gambler.
Number Two a Gentle man, Number Three
"A Leather Dealer, Number -Four
Cleveland Man.
Cleveland sun.

Cleveland sun.
A variety actress was buried IN Cnlcago
last Sunday whose tombstone will prooa-
bIy wear a puzzliDg epitaph. At the time
If her death she was the wife Of
one DR.. Palmer, who is at pres
ont confined in the county Jail
far trjftng with some of the Ten
Commandments. But the woman had
heen during the forty years of her life the
wife Of four men. She never was di-
vorced from any of them, and all four of
them are alive to-day. This state OF
things is somewhat irregular, of course,
Init then Mrs. Palmer was somewhat ire
oUlar herself. But it is a very interesting
story, Just the same.
She was born Josephine DuttOn in
New Orleans in l847. When fifteen years
old her parents died, leaving 8 prosperous
estate worth quite 100000. In addition
70 this good luck Miss DuttOu had the
face of Psyche and the form of Phryne.
she was more than good to
look upon, and men broke
their hearts for the Capricious
little damsel. She had but to nod APP
prevail and wed whom she wished.
Strange to say, she fell in live with
His gambling rooms on POydras street
we're among the most popular in the
Crescent City. Well, Melville had an
easy conquest of it, and six months sfter
Miss. Duttou became an orphan shSmaT-
ried her ili-Chosen lover. He wesfied of
mis- Child-Wife, robbed her of her money!
and finally beat her. This was more
taan her proud nature could endure One
no tlU laf
Whereabouts for O time was a complete
mystery. She did not even leave part
ing message for her little child.
At last she was heard from in Savan-
nah. There she taught school until
wearying OF the drudgery, she married
one Whiffen. For five years she honored
him with her companIonship and pretty
girl came to bless the union. Then there
was g repetition of the vanishing lady
act The child again was left behind.
Mrs. Melville-Whjffen came west, and
in Detroit, Mich, she met another fate in
one Joseph Goss, a wealthy leather dealer.
In their marriage license she called her
self Josephine DuttOn. GOsS seems to
have been a man after her heart, for she
lived COntentediY with him for eight
wears. A week ago, by the side Of
the dying woman in the house at
No. PIG Dearborn street, stood the
offspring of that alliance. She was 8
bIue-eyed, curly haired girl. People knew
her by the name of May Forrest, a variety
actress You can see q picture of her in
a "Garden of Eden" costume in a GER
tain shOp-window on Broadway. But
May Forests father was not Mrs.
MeIville-W hiffen- GOss' last husband
That distinction was preserved
for another. One day Mays mother dis
appeared as mysteriOuslY as before from
Detroit. New York was the scene of her
next adventure. There she adopted the
stage for q livelihood, and was ore of the
brightest nymphs in the famous Lydia
Thompson troupe. She tarrIed for five
wears in the metropolis. Possibly she
married there, but if she did it is not in
the record of her career.
At Cleveland, OHIO, she was next heard
from. There she met her fourth fate in
DR.. Palmer, whom she married again as
Josephine Dut.on. After 8 brief resi-
dence there the couple came to Chicago.
Here they seemed to live happily to-
eether, and Mrs. MelvilIe-Whiffen-G
Palmer might have got over her CapriCiOus
disposition but for the fact that the Doc
tor was rash enough to tTead on the law s
toes, and so prison bars separated him
from the death bed Of his vie. Still, he
may find some consolation in the young
child that she left to his paternal care,
and he can feel, too, that he will not sui
fer as his predecessors the pangs of q
wife's dislOyaltY.
This is not tragic story, perhaps, but
it is certainly unique. Four times mar
ried, never widow, never divorced and
never arrested for bigamy. Stranger
than all, too, the story is true in every
detail